Importance: Among high-risk patients with hypertension, targeting a systolic blood pressure of 120 mm Hg reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality compared with a higher target. However, intensive blood pressure management incurs additional costs from treatment and from adverse events. Objective: To evaluate the incremental cost-effectiveness of intensive blood pressure management compared with standard management. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cost-effectiveness analysis conducted from September 2015 to August 2016 used a Markov cohort model to estimate cost-effectiveness of intensive blood pressure management among 68-year-old high-risk adults with hypertension but not diabetes...

Cardiovascular disease burden is increasing all over the world. The diagnosis of hypertension is considered when a person has persistently elevated BP (Systolic BP more than 140 mmHg and/or Diastolic BP more than 90 mmHg). Dyslipidemia denotes abnormal levels of lipids in the blood (Total Cholesterol >200 mg%, Low density lipoprotein (LDL) >100 mg%, Triglycerides (TGL) >150 mg% and High density lipoprotein (HDL) <40 mg in men and < 50 mg in women. Hypertension and Dyslipidemia constitute the important components of metabolic syndrome as per the definition of NCEP Guidelines-Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III)...

Treatment-resistant hypertension (TRH) is defined as the failure to achieve an office BP target of <140/90 mmHg (<130/80 mmHg in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or diabetes) in patients with hypertension (HT), despite adherence to at least 3 antihypertensive medications at optimal tolerated doses, ideally including a diuretic (Calhoun et al., Circulation 2008). TRH identifies patients with hard-to-treat HT, who might benefit from specialist investigation and treatment. Although some studies put the prevalence of TRH as >10%, these levels may be inflated by white-coat hypertension and poor adherence...

Resistant hypertension has for many decades been defined as difficult-to-treat hypertension in order to identify patients who may benefit from special diagnostic and/or therapeutic considerations. Recently, the term "refractory hypertension" has been proposed as a novel phenotype of antihypertensive failure, that is, patients whose blood pressure cannot be controlled with maximal treatment. Early studies of this phenotype indicate that it is uncommon, affecting less than 5% of patients with resistant hypertension...

Heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure are leading causes of death worldwide, and hypertension is a significant risk factor for each. Hypertension is less common in women, compared to men, in those younger than 45 years of age. This trend is reversed in those 65 years and older. In the US between 2011-2014, the prevalence of hypertension in women and men by age group was 6% vs 8% (18-39 years), 30% vs 35% (40-59 years), and 67% vs 63% (60 years and over). Awareness, treatment, and control rates differ between genders with women being more aware of their diagnosis (85% vs 80%), more likely to take their medications (81% vs 71%) and more frequently having controlled hypertension (55% vs 49%)...

Stroke is known to frequently recur in patients with a history of cerebrovascular disease, and the control of hypertension is extremely important for the treatment of those patients. The robust relationship between the recurrent cerebrovascular disease and blood pressure control has been demonstrated in large-scale clinical studies. The antihypertensive drug therapy significantly reduces the recurrence rate of all types of cerebrovascular disease, incidences of myocardial infarction and all vascular events...

Preeclampsia is a potentially serious complication of pregnancy with increasing significance worldwide. Preeclampsia is the cause of 9%-26% of global maternal mortality and a significant proportion of preterm delivery, and maternal and neonatal morbidity. Incidence is increasing in keeping with the increase in obesity, maternal age, and women with medical comorbidities entering pregnancy. Recent developments in the understanding of the pathophysiology of preeclampsia have opened new avenues for prevention, screening, and management of this condition...

BACKGROUND: The cardiovascular prognostic value of various types of headache, particularly migraine, in the general population remains controversial. The aim of the present study was to assess their prognostic value for all-cause, cardiovascular and stroke mortalities in hypertensive patients. METHODS: A total of 1,914 hypertensive individuals were first categorized according to the absence or presence of headache and thereafter according to the 3 subtypes of headache: migraine, daily headache, and other headache...

This review and update focuses on the clinical features of hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), the thiazide-like agents chlorthalidone (CTDN) and indapamide (INDAP), potassium-sparing ENaC inhibitors and aldosterone receptor antagonists, and loop diuretics. Diuretics are the second most commonly prescribed class of antihypertensive medication, and thiazide-related diuretics have increased at a rate greater than that of antihypertensive medications as a whole. The latest hypertension guidelines have underscored the importance of diuretics for all patients, but particularly for those with salt-sensitive and resistant hypertension...